More

Straight Talk

Weekly blowouts are now standard among a certain New York set. Some women pay up to $50 a pop for the luxury, but fashion insiders count on freebies, $200 hair irons – or help from secret low-glamour sources. The narrow streets west of Bowery and south of Canal are dotted with neighborhood salons where “sets” in rollers are the main business, but blowouts can be had for as little as $6.

Pell Street is packed with these places. Pell Allison Salon, with lots of eighties-style frosted glass and black wood, is a favorite; Miss China came here. Blowouts start at $8 ($15 for long hair); color is from $35. If it’s too crowded? Tang’s Beauty Salon has similar prices.

Bayard Street is even cheaper: Sun Hong Lay Salon has a few stylists who speak okay English, and charges as little as $7 for blowouts. And then there’s the Fabulous Salon, with very unfabulous seventies décor. I followed my friend Karina, a publicist for J.Crew, here last week. Prices are posted, but vary with hair length and the clerk’s whims. After asking for a shampoo and blow dry ($8 for my medium-length, wavy hair) and refusing a ginseng treatment ($35), I sat in the barber chair for the first of two hair washes (water and shampoo came out of squeeze bottles), and moved to the sink for the second (with scalp massage throughout). Then, without any irons, bristle brushes, or even goops, and after I fended off an attempted oil-dousing, the stylist got my hair remarkably straight, if not Cher-like – you need gizmos for that. Karina, meanwhile, became a very happy brunette, proving that $35 color isn’t necessarily scary (she once paid $140 in midtown and has come here ever since).

To round off the afternoon, we crossed the street to Lucky China Lui Bakery for coffee and pastries ($2.48 for two). The total cost: about $60 for both of us – including tips and train fare.

Check out New York Shops, our guide to the city’s best stores, including a five-month roundup of “Sales & Bargains.” On sale at newsstands now. To order a copy, call 800-496-7833 ($4.99 plus $2 shipping and handling).